Monday, October 14, 2013

Monster Mondays: The Gold-Bug

Monster Mondays:
The Gold-Bug

By Frank Gori

Edgar Allen Poe was one of the first authors to pique my
interest in literature. The dark tales that built tension and straddled the
line between supernatural occurrence and the fragility of human psyche was a
lure I couldn’t resist as an impressionable youth.

Today’s monster is from one of his lesser known tales The
Gold-Bug which tells a tale of a man who becomes obsessed with treasure after
being bitten by a golden colored scarab. The idea of poison imprinting a
location with treasure in cryptology is interesting to work with.

A scarab beetle injects
a strange poison on its bite. The initial effect is 1d4 wisdom damage Fort DC
19. The secondary effect has an onset is 1D4 days after any successful bite
attack, victim will be given a dream like vision of treasure with clues to
where it may be located. The clues can be interpreted with a successful
knowledge local check of 15 or better and will actually lead victims to a location
which is always the location of a giant
fly trap The Fort save halves the wisdom damage and negates the hallucinary
effect. Those having the vision are not compelled to act on it but it often
seems to be divinely inspired and should be presented as such.

These massive
beetles share meals with giant fly traps which provide shelter and partly
digest the food. The beetles are immune to acid and can hold their breath with
a self contained air bubble for days at a time.

Attributes: Like most warrior types you need to have good physical stats though you can get by on a lowish con if you’re a skirmisher...

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